Origami Magic Tricks

Origami Magic

• Origami shapes are useful in magic tricks, because the folding allows a magician to compress paper into his hand and later reveal the unfolded paper as though out of thin air. Such magic is typically used with the folding of dollar bills and with the illusion of shredding paper money, which has been strategically folded to be hidden and later revealed as though magically reassembled after shredding.

Traditional Folds

• Traditional folds in origami include basic shapes such as boxes, birds (crane), dragons and frogs. While these shapes are not always presented in traditional magic shows, they appear to be magic when the shape appears from a flat piece of paper.

Origami Paper

• While Origami can be performed with almost any kind of paper, including paper money, there is a specific type of paper, called Origami paper that is thinner than paper used for copying and printing and can be more durable. Some Origami paper has one colored side and one white side, which lends itself to creating specific effects, such as the striped on a zebra. Another type of Origami paper has foil backing, which is particularly useful when creating insects, to give them a more lifelike-appearance.

Troublewit

• One specific style of Origami, dedicated to magic tricks is called Troublewit, which focuses on the folding of stiff paper using accordion-styled pleats and compression of paper into very small proportions. The small proportions and the accordion-styled pleating allow the unfolding to give an illusion of the form coming out of thin air. The method of folding the paper also allows the form to be morphed into more than one shape. Troublewit typically weaves the paper folding into a story so that the unfolded or decompressed paper form is revealed when the punchline of the story is revealed.